The second GeoTraining of PolAres project was held in Innsbruck between 17. – 19. August 2012. The goal is to prepare the Aouda.X suit-testers step by step for geological field work to the next desert mission in Morocco.

First Day, 17. August 2012: In the classroom

During the first day, members of the MARS2013 field crew and Remote Science Support Teams enjoyed geology lectures in Innsbruck. This introduction gave an overview on the basics of field geology such as mineralogy, petrology, as well as some definitions and processes of physical and structural geology. “These presentations were focusing on the description of the outcrops from the distance to closer view and visual observation of rock samples in the field”, commented Csilla Orgel (Univ. of Budapest, Hungary), who was one of the trainers for this workshop.

Csilla Orgel from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest is lecturing about the basics in geology and demonstrates analog images to compare Earth to Mars.

Second Day, 18. August 2012: Going South.

After the teaching session in the class room, the team went to the Bletterbach canyon near Bozen, Italy to practice geological field observations in the “real” situation. The team was split into two different teams and a BASE, which was in contact to the groups by radio. Every team took observations step by step like as they had trained during the theoretical session. The Bletterbach canyon is an excellent location for the training session with its variation of different rock types and colors as well as fossils.

Team “Aouda.S”: Christoph Gautsch, suit-tester in training, practice geological measurements using the gloves of Aouda.X in Bletterbach graben, Italy.

Third Day, 19. August 2012: Field work in Innsbruck

As the second training session we visited outcrops near Innsbruck in the Karwendel mountains to practice the adapted field procedures for sample acquisition – including the documentation of geological observations and had the suit-testers identify interesting outcrops.

“As a conclusion, this week-end was very fruitful and lots of geological terminology and field work measurements were learned successfully”, Csilla Orgel summarizes as fairly busy and intensive training workshop.